What are your specific Christmas cookie memories when you think back to the time you were a kid eagerly awaiting the festive season? A scent? A certain tradition? An absolute favorite cookie? What do you think of now? My memories are numerous and most of them start with a huge golden tin can, that served as an ice cream container in its previous life, closed by a slightly dented pink lid.

Of course summer inevitably has to end at some point, but somehow it feels harder each year. We went from “let’s do a little picnic for lunch break” to “where is my scarf?” in under a week. Suddenly the peaches don’t taste as good anymore and pears, apples and pumpkins are beginning to crowd the shelves.

“What do you mean ‘you made ketchup’?” – “Well, just that. I made ketchup.” It still amuses me when people get astounded by a simple statement like that. Most people consider ketchup something you’d -of course- buy at a supermarket and couldn’t care less about its ingredients list and high sugar content. Even though it’s dead simple to prepare and doesn’t take more than half an hour of one’s precious time!